McAfee Updates & Full Scan Broken, (by McAfee Update about Aug. 1, 2023)

[White_Hat]

Symptoms:

1. Around Aug. 1, McAfee Antivirus (with Total Protection) full scan started failing part way through the scan.

2.We then noticed the McAfee 'Check for updates' was going to '100% done' almost instantly, in less than a second, where it usually takes 10 to 20 seconds to complete.

3. On the 'My Protection' menu, at the bottom, under the title 'More security' it only had 1 item instead of 3. It had Security Report, but 'Security History' and 'My Home Network' were missing.

4. All the history data was missing.

We have 2 computers in constant use, and 2 laptops that are only used occasionally. We found the only way to fix the problem was to fully uninstall McAfee (through the Control Panel > Programs and Features, as recommended by McAfee's website), and to re-download and re-install it.

All 4 computers are on Windows 10. From doing things slightly differently on the laptops, we suspect something in the July Windows Update, and the McAfee update from around Aug. 1, 2023, may be what is damaging the McAfee antivirus software.

I'm not 100% sure, and I'm out of computers to experiment on, so if you have more information on this please post it.

It looks like our 4 computers are fine now. I'm just posting this here so if anyone else has this problem, this may help them.

[Nagesh_G]

Hi @White_Hat ,

Greetings from Mcafee,

We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused. Kindly share the current Mcafee version installed in the computer . the issue which you had last month may be due to updates or it might be a glitch in the software. Mcafee released the new version it will help to sort out the issue which had in previous version . Kindly monitor the software and update us if there is a abnormal in the features.

Regards

Nagesh G

[White_Hat]

One of our computers went back to this problem. It is now showing:

McAfee Total Protection

Version: 1.11.184

Release name: 16.0 R111

Antivirus

Build: 1.1.1395.0

Content creation date: 08/18/2023

Content version: 1507.0

This version of McAfee is very screwed up. It has all the problems listed above (full scan failing randomly, updates saying 100% almost instantly instead of updating the virus definitions, 2 of the last 3 menu items missing, and it deleted all the history AGAIN).

If this version of McAfee is current, it should be pulled right away. It's not even beta test ready.

On another computer, that I uninstalled, re-downloaded, and re-installed McAfee on (mentioned in the first message), that is still working, shows:

McAfee Total Protection

Version 16.0

Release Name: 16.0 R52

McAfee Security Center

Build: 19.22.120

Last update: 8/13/2023

Version: 19.22

McAfee VirusScan:

Build: 26.7.252

Engine creation date: 8/18/2023

Engine version: 5258.0

Last update: 8/18/2023

Version 26.7

McAfee appears to be still working on this computer. 'Check for updates' takes about 10 to 20 seconds, to check, download, and install updates, so it appears to be updating the virus definitions when we ask it to. This is very important, because we generally check email as soon as we turn our computers on, so we update McAfee first so we have the latest virus definitions before check for email.

The virus definitions not updating when we manually request this, is a huge flaw, right away. Not to mention the full scan failing, history deleting, etc. that R111 is doing.

[White_Hat]

Nagesh G,

Please see my reply to my message with additional info.

[White_Hat]

Hi Nagesh G,

Can you tell us where the release notes and version numbers history are, so we can monitor if we have the correct version? I.e. we are looking for a list of the version numbers and the dates they are released, for the last few months, for Total Protection, and for McAfee Antivirus.

Thank you.

[White_Hat]

This is still screwed up.

Today McAfee updated itself to Version 16.0 R111, and it is still broken in the above ways. Anyone else having this problem?

[wheel366]

I just started having this problem yesterday.

[TaDaNorah]

Windows 10

I kept reinstalling so it should be up to date

For me I tried Full scan two weeks ago and suddenly Mcafee started to act weird like it disappear from the notification bar, and the individual scans became unavailable, and every time I try full scanning it just stick to 1% and then cancel itself, then I uninstall Mcafee with Mcafee's uninstall tool and then reinstall, of course things got back to normal but then when I tried full scan again everything I mentioned before happened again, I don't know how long this will take but please fix it I'm tired of uninstalling and reinstalling as today is my third or forth time doing it.

Thank you